A Dozen Roses
by Nytel
Summary: Kara keeps getting roses. KL. Set between You Can't Go Home Again and Colonial Day. And it's slightly AU because Helo's on Galactica.


**A/N:** This was a birthday present for JAT.NJ. :) 

**A Dozen Roses**

Kara woke up to the harsh sound of a beeping alarm clock. She reached above her head and slammed it off, her mood instantly turning sour. There was nothing pleasant about her upcoming day—her schedule was packed and the one person who might have been able to brighten things up wasn't even around. Lee had been called away to help the President at one of her Quorum meetings. He'd been gone the last two days and wouldn't return until later that night.

Kara groaned as she forced herself to get up and out of the warm confines of her covers, and go to the head. There was at least the slightest chance that a shower might make her morning better—that and a few cups of coffee would be the highlight of her day.

* * *

As the water streamed from the showerhead Kara stood under it, letting the warmth of the water loosen her tight muscles. It had been one hell of a week and there was nothing she wanted more than to stand under the spray until she was completely relaxed, but unfortunately she didn't have that luxury. 

Knowing that she was running out of time, Kara quickly washed and rinsed her hair. Not one hundred percent satisfied, but not having more time to spend, she turned off the tap and wrapped a towel securely around her body.

She shivered as she stepped out of the stall—the towels had once been thick and warm, but they'd been used so many times since the cylon attack that they had degraded to flimsy scraps of material.

As Kara made her way over to her locker she had to weave between the crowds of people who were either standing in line for a shower or just finishing up at their lockers. Despite the relatively small number of personnel left on Galactica, the head was always crowded in the morning. It was the time when _everyone_ was in there. People were either showering after night shifts, or were getting ready to start their day—either way it meant being in the head. By the time she finally reached her locker, Kara was both cold and pissed off.

Her back turned to everyone else, Kara yanked open the door and took out a spare pair of tanks before pulling them over her head. The clung to her damp skin, but she ignored it as she fished out a pair of grey underwear and some pants, putting them on as well.

Just as she was about to close the locker she heard a quiet and squeaky sounding "Sir" uttered from behind her. Kara whipped around to see who the hell was bugging her, but instead of finding some nugget who'd gotten lost, she was faced with the normal scene—pilots and officers crowded in every corner of the head.

Kara scanned the crowd warily. She didn't see anyone who was paying attention to her even remotely. Had she been dealing with nuggets for so long now that she was beginning to hear their voices even when they weren't there? Gods help her.

With a sigh of disbelief she started turning back to face her locker, but something caught her eye midway. A flash of startling red on the bench directly next to her made her stop and do a double-take. A rose?

Kara stared at it in confusion as she tried to figure out who had left a rose on the bench.

"Hey," she said, catching the attention of the raptor pilot next to her. "This yours?"

The other woman shook her head and gave Kara a puzzled look. "That person left it for you."

Kara raised her eyebrow in suspicion. "Who left it for me?"

The pilot shrugged her shoulders. "Some nugget, I think," she said before walking away.

Kara groaned. She was sure that Hot Dog had been eyeing her last week, but now he was giving her flowers? Gods, she was not going to frak him. She shuddered at the thought.

She closed her locker and was about to leave, but stopped. She stared at the rose for a few more seconds before picking it up. If anything, she'd be able to bet it at the triad table later. It wasn't her fault that stupid idiot was infatuated with her, but she could at least make the best of the situation.

* * *

Not having the time to stop in the bunkroom, Kara headed straight for the mess. She was running late and only grabbed a mug of coffee and something that resembled oatmeal. Finding an empty table, she plopped herself down, set her rose on the table, and began to eat. 

She was halfway done when she noticed someone standing on the opposite side of the table from her. Looking up she saw Helo. She put her spoon down as she noticed his odd expression. "What Helo?" she asked, not in the mood to be bothered.

He grinned at her. "What? I can't say hi?"

Kara was about to respond until she noticed that Helo was standing funny—his arms were behind his back. She eyed him suspiciously. "What are you doing?"

Obviously knowing that she'd caught on, Helo moved his hands in front of him. Kara's mouth almost dropped open in surprise when she saw he was holding another rose. He held it out to her and she took it automatically.

"Why are you giving me flowers?" Kara asked.

Helo laughed at her comment. "I'm not."

Kara fought the urge to roll her eyes. "_Yes,_ you are!" She stated.

Karl shook his head. "It's not from me." Still grinning, he turned and left.

"Karl!" She shouted after him, but he was already at the exit.

* * *

The entire way to the briefing room, Kara thought about the two roses she was carrying. She had this niggling feeling at the back of her mind that they weren't from Hot Dog. Did he really have the resources to pull that off? Kara hadn't even known that there were roses left in the fleet. They wouldn't have come at a cheap price either. So what did it mean? Did she have some mystery admirer? The idea made her want to laugh—Starbuck with a secret admirer, yeah right. It was probably some stupid joke or something. 

Kara had one hand on the hatch of the briefing room when she heard someone call her name.

"Starbuck, wait up!"

Kara sighed as she recognized Crashdown's voice. Didn't he know she had work to do?

"What?" She asked, not bothering to conceal the anger in her voice as she turned around to face him.

"Whoa," he said as he jogged up to her. "Don't shoot the messenger."

She noticed he was holding another rose. She held out her hand.

"You sure you're giving this to the right person?" Kara questioned before taking it.

Crash nodded. "My instructions were _very_ clear." He turned to walk away. "It's definitely for you."

* * *

The nuggets saluted Kara as she entered the briefing room. Good, she thought. It seemed like she'd finally drilled that into their heads. 

"Take your seats," she ordered, adopting her teaching voice. She made her way to the podium, ignoring the weird looks she was getting because of the roses in her hands. She was trying not to think too much about her gifts, but it was becoming increasingly difficult.

When Kara walked behind the podium she saw the red right away.

"All right!" She picked up the rose from the podium and turned to face her class. "Who the hell put this here?"

Her words were greeted with complete silence. "I asked you a question, nuggets."

Kara scanned the room, looking for any guilty faces. She paused as she noticed Chuckles looked flushed and wasn't meeting her eyes. Chuckles?

"Chuckles," she ground out. "Did you put this here?"

"Sir, no Sir," he responded immediately as he raised his eyes to look up at her.

"It was here when we got here, Sir," Hot Dog said, drawing her attention to him. He looked calm; he was either telling the truth or he was a damn good liar.

"Fine." She placed all four roses on the podium. "Now let's see if anything we went over yesterday stuck in your brains."

* * *

After Kara finished up with her nuggets, she made her way to the rec room, intending on finishing the weekly evals for her almost-pilots. By the time she made it there, she'd gained another rose. 

Gaeta had been rushing to CIC and stopped just long enough to hand it to her before taking off. Not knowing who was behind this was driving her crazy.

Despite her earlier thoughts about it being some kind of joke, she doubted that was the case. First of all, most people on Galactica were too afraid of her to do anything of the sort, and second, no one would waste roses on a practical joke. That meant that someone was _actually_ giving her flowers. No one had ever given her flowers before.

She had no idea who it was, but the thought still made her smile. Even if it turned out to be Chuckles or Hot Dog, someone thought she was worthy of roses.

Entering the rec room, Kara saw Sharon sitting at one of the tables, gathering up some papers that she'd been working on. Kara made her way over, all five roses in hand, and sat down across from the raptor pilot.

"Hey," Sharon said with a smile when she looked up and saw whom it was.

"Hey," Kara replied, grin still intact. She settled herself into the chair.

"You look happy today Starbuck." There was a hint of friendly teasing in Sharon's voice that Kara couldn't help but notice.

Kara shrugged. "Maybe a bit."

"Does it have anything to do with those flowers?" Sharon asked, looking at them like she wished her relationship with the Chief didn't have to be so secretive.

Kara's only response was to grin.

"Thought so." Sharon reached down to the seat of the chair beside her. When she pulled her hand back up, Kara wasn't all that surprised to see a rose in her hand.

"Who told you to give this to me?" Kara asked as Sharon put the flower on the table.

The younger woman laughed. "Now way! He'll kill me if I tell you."

* * *

By the time Kara finished her maintenance shift she had found two more roses, both clearly intended for her. One stashed in the toolbox she always insisted on using, and the other had been lying on her bunk when she'd gone to change. 

Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to give her those roses and she had no idea who it was. She'd run into both Chuckles and Hot Dog in the hall when she was heading to the bunkroom to get her flight suit. When they both detoured to avoid her, she figured she could count them out.

She may not know who was giving them to her, but at least she had something to occupy her mind for the next four hours while she was flying CAP.

She made her way over to her viper and climbed up the stairs to the cockpit. She paused when she saw a rose lying on the seat.

"Something wrong Sir?" Cally asked from the bottom of the stairs where she was standing with Kara's helmet under one arm.

"No," Kara replied as she reached in a picked up the flower. Turning around she added, "Cally, can you do something with this until I get back? I don't have time to run it to my locker."

"Sure thing Lieutenant. I'll just keep it with this one," she said, holding up yet another rose.

* * *

When Kara entered the bunkroom later that night, fresh from her shower after CAP, she was surprised to see the President's advisor. 

"Billy?" She asked skeptically as she entered the room and closed the hatch behind her.

"Lieutenant Thrace." He spun around to face her, looking like he was guilty of something.

"What are you doing here? If you're looking for Dee's bunkroom it's practically on the other side of Galactica."

"I know. I have something for you."

Kara felt her eyebrows rise in question as she realized he was holding something behind his back. Billy was the one giving her roses? She knew she attracted a lot of men, but Billy really wasn't her type. "Okay," she said tentatively.

"Here." He held out her eleventh rose of the day.

"Thanks." Kara was unsure of what else to say.

"Oh," he said, sounding startled. "It's not from me."

"Then who's it from?"

Billy opened his mouth as if he was going to say, but then he shut it again. "I'm sorry," he said after a few seconds. "I'm not allowed to tell you."

Kara groaned—she really wanted to know. "Please?" she asked, hoping her unexpected niceness would catch him off guard.

He shook his head. "Sorry, Lieutenant. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a shuttle to catch."

He made it out the hatch before she could ask him again.

* * *

The bunkroom was empty, save Kara who was lying in her rack. She was holding the eleven roses and every few seconds she would sniff them, savoring the sweet scent. She was probably the only woman in the entire fleet with eleven red roses, and the thought made her happy. She didn't normally care about stuff like that, but admittedly it was kind of nice. 

Kara heard the hatch open, and when she turned her head to see whom it was she smiled. "Hey, Lee."

"Hey," he responded as he walked over to her bunk, duffel bag still slung over his shoulder. "How was your day?" he asked, grinning.

"Good." Kara got out of her bunk and moved to stand in front of Lee. "Someone gave me flowers." She held out the roses in front of her.

"I see that."

Kara eyed Lee suspiciously. He was calm, too calm. Normally when she mentioned things like that he got mad.

"It looks like they did a crappy job," Lee added in a serious voice.

"What?" She replied, instantly offended.

He just smiled at her. "Only an idiot gets a woman eleven roses." He unzipped his duffel and reached in. "Good thing I'm not an idiot."

Kara's jaw almost dropped as Lee handed her the twelfth rose—everything clicked.

Of course it had been Lee—he was the only one who could have pulled it off. He had connections within the fleet and definitely on Galactica. He also knew her schedule inside and out and was probably the only person who could find a way to give her a dozen roses, one at a time.

Then it really clicked. _Lee_ had given her roses. He'd called her a woman. Sure, they flirted a lot, but half the time she was sure he thought of her as "one of the guys".

An unexpected warmth grew low in her belly. Had she really been so blind that she was missing what was right in front of her?

Lee chuckled at the look on her face. "Happy Birthday, Kara," he whispered as he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

His action was so unexpected that it took a second for his words to sink in.

"What?" She asked, genuinely confused.

"It's your birthday," he stated simply. "I knew you probably wouldn't remember, but it is."

Kara did a quick mental calculation—it was right around the time of her birthday. She probably would have realized, had she not last track of the days in the craziness that had followed the cylon attack.

"Thank you," Kara said sincerely, her voice soft. She pulled him into a hug.

Lee leaned into her embrace. "You're welcome." His breath teased the hair at the back of her neck as he spoke.

"No one's ever given me flowers before," she admitted, not ready let go.

Lee squeezed her once. "I know."

Kara had a vague flashback to one of the many triad games she'd played after the cylons had stopped attacking every thirty-three minutes. She couldn't remember how the topic had come up, but she'd mentioned it then too. All she remembered was Lee being completely shocked and making some comment about how it wasn't right.

"Everyone woman deserves flowers Kara, especially you."

She wasn't sure what part of his words fueled her actions, but she pulled back just enough to kiss him soundly on the lips. He barely had time to make a muffled sound of surprise before she wrapped her hand not holding the roses around the back of his neck and increased the pressure.

The next thing she knew Lee was responding wholeheartedly as he ran his tongue along her lips. She deepened the kiss. Lee's hands had come up to cup either side of her face as he kissed her within an inch of her life. Not one to be out done, Kara made sure to return the favor.

When lack of oxygen finally made them break apart, Kara rested her forehead against Lee's. They stayed like that for a few seconds, trying to catch their breaths. Kara was looking directly into Lee's eyes and she was happy with what she saw there. She wasn't making something out of nothing; Lee had feelings for her. What shocked her was that she realized she had those feelings too.

Somehow, in the last few months, she'd fallen for him. She'd managed to ignore it until now, but after that kiss it wasn't exactly an option any more. She wasn't even sure she wanted it to be.

Starting to feel nervous Kara decided she'd better break the silence. "So…" she said quietly as she pulled back, "…thanks for the flowers."

Lee looked at her for a few seconds before laughing. "Maybe I should get your roses every day." A smile twitched at the corners of his lips.

Kara grinned as she realized that everything was still okay between them; she hadn't screwed it up by kissing him. Maybe they could do this—turn their friendship into something even better.

"Just imagine how lucky you'd be if you'd gotten me a cake too." She winked suggestively.

Lee grabbed onto her hips and tugged her back toward him, a cocky grin plastered on his face. "Actually…"

The End


End file.
